Growth Performance Traits and Organ Weights in Semi- Adult Rabbits Exposed to Crude Oil Contaminated Diets

The effects of feeding forage contaminated with graded levels of crude oil on growth performance traits and organ weights of semi-adult rabbits were investigated to simulate the impact of a natural crude spillage on wild-life, game and livestock. Five diets were compounded with five levels of crude oil contamination of 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20%, respectively. Feed intake, feed conversion efficiency, body weight gain as well as final body weight were significantly (P inversely with increasing dietary concentration of crude oil. Mortality rate was higher among rabbits exposed to varying levels of dietary crude oil. There was a significant (P increased in the diets. Evaluation of organ weights showed a sensitive response to crude oil toxicity with significant (P exposed to crude oil contaminated diets. The liver, kidney and heart hypertrophied while on the other hand, the spleen, pancreas and gonads atrophied. Post mortem examination of organs from randomly sacrificed rabbits from crude oil treated groups showed varying degrees of inflammation, necrosis, hypertrophy and atrophy.